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Webber says he feels 'comfortable' over team orders decision

Mark Webber says he still feels "comfortable" about his decision to ignore team orders during the British Grand Prix

The Australian, fighting for second place with team-mate Sebastian Vettel in the latter stages of the race, ignored calls from Red Bull to "maintain the gap" with the German.

In the end, Webber finished behind Vettel, but he admitted afterwards that he had ignored up to four calls from the team.

Writing in his column for the BBC website, Webber said he still felt at ease about his decision.

"I'm not going to get any prizes for guessing what you all want to read about this week, am I? My team's decision to ask me not to try to pass Sebastian Vettel in the other Red Bull in the last four of five laps of the British Grand Prix," wrote Webber.

"I chose to race as hard and as fair as I thought was possible, trying my best to beat Seb. I got pretty close a couple of times but couldn't quite pull it off. It was obviously a difficult situation, but I still feel comfortable about what I did.

"In that situation, you are hit by conflicting emotions. You want to improve your position irrespective of who it is in front of you - especially when it is someone at Sebastian's level, whom you have to work pretty hard to get back on to.

"To manage it but then be told to hold position is something I wasn't prepared to follow at the time. If I'd backed off and held the gap at three seconds, as I was asked to do, it would have been much more difficult for me to sleep after the race.

"At the same time, I knew I was going against the team's wishes. Normally, if you are racing and trying to gain a position, you would imagine everyone would be happy with that.

"They weren't, obviously - not because they didn't want me to finish second; they just didn't want us to have contact. From a team's perspective, it is obviously their worst nightmare."

Webber insisted the row did not affect his future in the team, and the Australian made it clear he was still in positive talks about the renewal of his contract.

"Christian [Horner] and I had a chat about the situation after the race. We both put our cases forward and I think we came away seeing it from both perspectives," he said.

"I'm sure you'll be wondering if it will make any difference to my decision about what I do in 2012, whether I carry on racing with Red Bull or not.

"The team and I have time to make that decision. We're talking about continuing at the moment and it's positive, and what happened on Sunday does not turn my world upside down."

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